Media drama, starring Ward Stone

I have been an admirer of Ward Stone, wildlife pathologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation for a number of years, so I’ve been interested (OK, fascinated) by recent allegations. The first of two articles in the Times Union by James Odato, Two faces of Ward Stone, suggested that Stone was difficult to get along with – totally believable from what I’ve seen. Abusive? Perhaps. Also, “internal DEC documents reveal that Stone has lived for years at the pathology lab without authorization.” Evidently true, but why did DEC allow this for nearly a decade? As for other allegations, Ward, in a Metroland article, rebutted suggestions that the animals he had were pets. He did acknowledge shooting a penned deer that was sick.

Public radio station WAMC took Stone’s long-running program In Our Backyard off the air, pending a state investigation.

Then the second TU article came out, suggesting Stone had misdiagnosed the West Nile virus when it struck in the summer of 1999. This time, the allegations apparently struck a nerve with Stone. In a Metroland cover story – also appearing on writer Chet Hardin’s website, Stone said, “The second article…is coming after my science, which is a mistake. I think that you’ll find that my science will hold up. It’s pretty good.” And, based what I know about physicians isolating a disease, what Dr. John Charos, a veterinarian with New York City’s Central Veterinarian Services said about Stone’s actions makes perfect sense: “Basically, common things happen commonly. You have a new disease that’s never been in this country before, human nature would be to look for the common things, not to look for West Nile.”

Supporters of Stone rally outside WAMC to try to get his radio gig back earlier this month. “Before the rally could really get underway, Dr. Alan Chartock [chairman of the radio station] came out of the WAMC building and invited in the protestors to address the station·s executive board during the public-comment period of their regular meeting. Once inside and before the board, they made their message clear.

“Lynne Jackson, a volunteer for Save the Pine Bush, said they were ‘very distressed· about WAMC·s decision to suspend Stone’s show [which] offered a great deal of information about the environment which has come under extreme attack these days,’…and that she hoped that they would reconsider putting the program back on the air.

“We have said from the very beginning,” Chartock responded, “that the minute these very serious charges are cleared up, Ward comes back.”

Further in the Metroland article: “Another thing that Stone said didn·t sit quite right with him was TU editor Rex Smith’s involvement in WAMC’s The Media Project with Chartock. As Stone pointed out, Smith is Odato’s boss, and said he couldn’t help but feel that there might have been a conflict of interest there.” Hey, maybe The Media Project could discuss that!

Suddenly, WAMC brings back Ward Stone in reduced format, without the requisite resolution by investigators. “Stone…attributes his return to the demonstration held Sept. 13 in front of the station. ‘Do you think that I would have got back on the show this quickly had it not been for the rally?’” he asked Monday night, adding that he thinks his involvement in the rally might have surprised the WAMC staffers. ‘They didn’t think I would participate in something like that because I’m part of the WAMC family.'” Always the provocateur.

The WAMC press release noted that “there has been no resolution…in fairness to him and to our community of listeners hungry for environmental news, we’ve decided to restore In Our Backyard…Should the Inspector General’s investigation find merit to the allegations raised by the Times Union article, WAMC will, of course, reconsider its options.”

As Fred LeBrun’s commentary in the Times Union notes, the departure of DEC senior staff may be a good deal for them, not for us. “I just can’t imagine a Department of Environmental Conservation without… Ward Stone in his lab as the state’s wildlife pathologist, sounding the alarm about something dire.”

Roger Green

6 Responses

There seems to be quite a Ward Stone fan club in the media ranks, maybe because he always made good copy? Having had contact with Mr. Stone outside the DEC framework as a service provider, he can be described as arrogant, belligerent, and abusive. It is not hard to believe that he would posess enough of a sense of entitlement to take advantage of his notoriety to steal from his employer (us, the taxpayers who fund his created crusades).

Don’t forget how Alan Chartock and WAMC brough Scott Ritter on the air as a commentator and awarded him the first-ever WAMC courageous person of the year award.

However, all this came AFTER Ritter had already been arrested twice for attempted soliicitation of sexual acts from a minor. Former ADA Andrea Peyser cut a deal with Ritter behind then-Albany DA Paul Clyne’s back to get hiom off scott-free (and promptly got fired for it). The news story broke, we had to endure unfounded accusations from WAMC’s storm troopers who insisted it was all a set-up by the media to silence Ritter voice, never addressing the criminality of his acts or the dubious act of supporting Ritter knowing what he had done.

Then, this past Jan. 2010, it wa s reported that Ritter got arrested yet again, a third time, for exposing himself over the Internet to someone he thought was a minor teen girl, but turned out to be a state trooper instead. Finally, WAMC found the moral fortitude to abandon their support of Ritter.

As I was against the war, I was more than incensed that WAMC would discredit anti-war advocates by having Ritter foisted upon us as a “spokesman” for our side. Ritter was caught by state troopers three times, but how many times did he get away with it? WAMC supporters apparently care less about the safety of their teenaged daughters than they do in scoring political points.

10 months later, WAMC has yet to issue an apology to the public for allowing Alan Chartock to use his clearly questionable judgement for forceing Ritter on its leadership, even after they were aware of teh crimes he committed in the past.

So, what does this have to do with Ward Stone? Because it doesn’t matter what Ward Stone did, how he misused taxpayer money, as long as the lemmings at WAMC consider him their “golden boy” as they did with Scott Ritter, they’ll continue to use him for their own purposes.

In closing, I ask you this? Why did Chartock and the WAMC board cow-tow to the protestors demands? Ask Lynne Jackson and her cartel how much money they collectively donate to WAMC every year, there’s your answer.

Let’s ask WAMC just how many protesters there were supporting Stone? Someone I know went to look and only saw handful of people. The number does not suggest enough support to give airtime back to Stone when the decision was to wait and see the outcome of the Inspector General’s report. The same number of people “rallied” in front of the DEC building shortly after the news story originally appeared in the Times Union. Again, an interested party went to see and found maybe a dozen Stone supporters. However, TV news coverage on the rally that evening showed such a narrow field of vision it was impossible to see that the number was so small. To be fair and balanced, did WAMC invite Stone critics in to give their side of the story in person?

Mr. Green, did you seek verification on your statements? Ask for input from those who were brave enough to go on record against their long-protected supervisor? You cite the Metroland article but did you ask the eyewitnesses (staff on site who saw the deer shooting and helped care for those deer for years) about Stone’s statement that he shot a “penned deer that was sick”? Did you ask Stone, a pathologist, to see the diagnostic report on the sick deer; what was the disease? Truth is, none of the deer in the pen were sick, certainly no CWD was found in those deer. They were disabled (injured) deer or pets that people raised inappropriately that were unable to be returned to the wild. They had lived in that pen at the Wildlife Resources Center for years, fed and cared for by DEC staff.

Over the years, Stone has no doubt accomplished some good. He certainly has accomplished making people feel good about what he has done. But to assume that he is the only DEC employee who cares about, or does anything good for the environment, is grossly unfair. He has been good at marshalling the media and telling peole what they want to hear, right or wrong. Most likely things had a shred of truth that he used to turn media focus on himself. The public loves a “maverick” (no doubt the word he used most to describe himself) who challenges govenment and appeals to the public mistrust of public officials.

No doubt there will be criticisms and complaints from Stone’s adoring public once he is gone that he will never be able to be replaced. I hope that is true. I hope we see DEC develop a comprehensive wildlife health program that includes a licensed veterinarin and/or a pathologist with a PhD that can serve the needs of our natural resouces in an ever-increasing threatening world. Personally, I don’t care if Stone stays on WAMC as a local commentator on nature. I hope the state agencies find a ‘voice’ to offer the public that is not based on an individual’s need to be in the limelight, often at the unfair expense of fellow employees, wildlife and even the truth.

I never meant to suggest that Ward Stone was the only DEC employee that cared about the environment.
I never indicated one way or the other the size of the crowd to get Ward Stone back on the air.
No, I didn’t ask Ward Stone anything; I’ve never, to my recollection, met him. I did note, though, that his defense of his science re the West Nile (the second TU article) seemed far more vigorous than his defense after the first.
I do find the culture of “fame” around Stone fascinating.

In response to Jango Davis, “Lynne Jackson and her CARTEL”? A cartel is a banding together of companies…as far as I know Lynne represents Save the Pine Bush only…unless you count some admirers of STPB among other environmental groups. And if they are also big fans of WAMC and generous donors to it, what does that prove? That they are all around good guys.
By the way, ever since the first Earth Day there have been attempts at a real Cartel among area environmental groups, which would be a wonderful thing. Sad that they only exist in your imagination.